First Extract Brew - Very low O.G. and F.G.

[smuglas]

I'm new to the brewing game. After going on a 1 day course I did an all-grain brew at home. This actually worked reasonably well (i.e. it was drinkable).

However, I decided to take a step backwards and try an extract brew. I followed a recipe in 'How to Brew' by John Palmer for an American Style Ale. I measured my O.G. as 1.032 which seemed a bit low but I was not unduly concerned. It has been fermenting for 2 weeks and I'm about to bottle. I checked the F.G. last night and it was almost at 1.000 (perhaps marginally over).

I'm worried it may have become infected somehow. Although the beer smelled pretty good when I went to take the F.G. reading.

Am I wasting my time bottling? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[Jsmith82]

First thought I had was you need a new hydrometer. It's pretty tough to miss a gravity with extract provided you followed directions in adding the right amount of water, and if you were able to correctly brew an all grain beer beforehand, I'm giving the benefit of the doubt here that you can follow instructions pretty well.

Pour a big cup of water, test your hydrometer. It's probably the culprit.

**EDIT** Welcome to HBT!

 

[bonzombiekitty]

I would question the accuracy of your hydrometer. In extract brewing, as long as your volumes are correct your OG will be whatever the recipe says (a common problem is people adding top-up water and pulling out a sample that hasn't been totally blended with the rest of the wort).

An FG of 1.000 would be indicative of an infection, but an infections are usually self evident. Take a taste, if it tastes ok rather than like the anus of a decaying dingo, you're fine.

Put your hydrometer in plain ol' water. Does it read 1.000?

 

[smuglas]

Thanks for the prompt responses. The first thing I did was check the hydrometer in a glass of water - came out at 1.000 exactly.

The beer tasted fine - quite promising in fact.

I'll check the F.G. again (for my own sanity if nothing else) and proceed to bottle.

 

[Bradinator]

Did you measure it after cooling the wort for your OG? Temperature has an impact on the gravity reading (hotter will give lower gravity)